Pages

16/10/2014

Inspiration: Music

Some time ago I asked in my blog's Facebook what you'd like me to post about. Of course I shall continue sharing the crafts and DT work I do, but I wondered if there's something more that you'd like to know. Like something about the medium I use, my favorite gesso brand or similar. What was suggested was a post about inspiration. So I decided to start a series of post concentrating on something that inspires me. I shall do them on a monthly basis and let's see how it goes.

The first topic that popped into my head when thinking about inspiration wasn't the other blogs and tutorials and Pinterest and Facebook even though they provide a constant stream of inspiration. The first one was music.

I listen to music whenever I craft alone. That is to say when I have an evening shift and it's only me in the house during the day. I listen to music when I go to work and come home from work. We usually also have some sort of music playing in the background in our home. And my husband makes his own instruments and music so music really plays a big part in our lives.

Usually music is just there, providing something interesting to the ear when I use my eyes and hands to create. But sometimes the piece of music is so inspiring or the band so influential to me that it has to have a work of its own. These versions have only started to emerge, I guess partly because I'm being more experimental or confident about the things I do. For example I created the "Heart of Turisas" based on a song by one of my favorite bands. Or the altered guitar I made for Finnabair team using the "Overboard" as a source of inspiration. (Links take to my previous blog posts and have the songs linked to them.)

There are some pieces of music that have a deep effect on me. I connect them to certain moments or emotions. One of the most important pieces of music, "Myrskylintu" I have scarpbooked twice. And I still think I need to do something inspired by the song. I want to document this song to my kids and somehow try to capture its effect on me and how it feels to me to listen the song.

So music can provide inspiration in many ways. It can be directly the subject, the topic of the craft like in scrapbooking pages about a certain song or a band. Or it can resonate into a piece of its own, more like an interpretation of the song itself like a canvas, a set of ATCs or a page in an art journal. Or then it just can help the creative process by just being there, setting the mood for the day, providing maybe the color scheme.

If you want to use music as inspiration, here's a few ideas:

- document your favorite song: make a scrapbooking page, a note or a page to your art journal (or do exactly the opposite, document the piece of music you really dislike)

- put some music on and use the feeling as a base to your craft: is it gloomy, happy, serene, energetic? Or what color it is - blue, red, white?

- be inspired by the lyrics: use them as the title, the jumping of point to your journaling or topic

- ensure that you have documented your wedding song or some other song connected to a major point in your life: make a page about it and document it or craft a canvas based on the song and show it off

- take out your favorite medium whether it be crayons or water colors, put some music on and just have fun: make lines or blobs of paint if the music feels so or draw a detailed picture, then use the piece as a piece for another craft or hung to your wall as such

I hope you found this post interesting! Please feel free to add other ideas how to use music as an inspiration source or share a link to your crafts! Thank you for stopping by today!